Lancing man jailed for rape for a second time

A LANCING man – who was jailed more than 15 years ago for raping a girl when he was just 16 – is once again behind bars after he raped a 19-year-old teenager.
The streets will be safer now that Philip Olliver has been convicted, police said previouslyThe streets will be safer now that Philip Olliver has been convicted, police said previously
The streets will be safer now that Philip Olliver has been convicted, police said previously

Philip Olliver, of West Lane, was jailed for nine years today (August 6) – just three days after celebrating his 33rd birthday – for raping a woman ‘so drunk she couldn’t possibly have consented to sex’.

During his sentencing today at Lewes Crown Court, Judge Charles Kemp branded Olliver as a ‘dangerous’ individual with a ‘high sex drive’ that posed a ‘serious risk to the public’.

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Judge Kemp described how Olliver went on the prowl for sex with a stranger, while out in Brighton on the morning of January 5, of this year.

While walking down St James Street at 2am, Olliver discovered the ‘clearly drunk’ teen and took advantage of her, raping the woman on the stairs outside a block of flats.

Judge Kemp said: “She was so drunk that she had no recollection of the incident at all.

“After having satisfied your sexual needs you simply left that girl lying virtually comatose.

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“You took full advantage of that young girl while knowing that she was completely incapable of resisting to your force.”

The court heard how tests on the victim revealed she was at least four times over the legal drink-drive limit.

The judge said that Olliver had ‘hoped nothing would come from the attack’, as he believed the woman to be too intoxicated to ever remember it.

And although she could not recollect any of the incident – even to this day, witnesses were able to provide evidence to police of Olliver’s attack.

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During the hearing, it was revealed that Olliver had previously been jailed for five years in a young offenders institute after pleading guilty to raping a girl in Shoreham, in 1999.

The judge said Olliver had also been ordered to undertake two different sex offenders programmes – one in relation to the 1999 offence, and another following a separate conviction of burglary, in 2006.

However, Olliver only completed one of these rehabilitation courses.

During the hearing, prosecutor Mary Walford said his attack on the latest victim had left the teenager traumatised.

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Ms Walford told the court how the woman had suffered ‘degradation and humiliation’ when hearing about the rape.

She added in the months after the attack, the teen returned to her home in Poland and began ‘drinking heavily’.

Ms Walford said: “The victim has suffered significant psychological harm.”

In mitigation, defence counsel, Jeffrey Lamb told the court how, although Olliver accepted the jury’s verdict of guilty, he still protested his innocence.

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He added Olliver had not committed a serious offence for many years and that the first time he did so he was ‘young and immature’.

He explained Olliver had been trying to deal with his sexual urges by having consensual sex with strangers.

The barrister refuted the prosecution’s claims that Olliver had planned to rape someone on the night of January 4.

Mr Lamb added: “How it can be realistically suggested that there was a degree of planning stretches credulity. It was a random meeting with a complete stranger.”

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Taking all the evidence into account, the judge sentenced Olliver to nine years imprisonment, with a further four years on licence.

Olliver, who was wearing a purple stripped shirt, was also ordered to pay £120 victim surcharge.

Judge Kemp said: “You don’t know – nor do I – what long-term psychological harm you have done to that woman.

“You do indeed pose a very high risk of causing serious harm so long as stress in your life remains unaddressed.”

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